Chapter 14
Understanding Unionization and Collective Bargaining · Unionization: It is the effort by employees and outside agencies (Unions or associations) to act as a single unit when dealing with management over issues relating to their work. · In an adversarial relationship between union and management the union’s role is to gain the concessions from management and to preserve those concessions to the grievance procedure. · AFL-CIO: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations · Arbitration: Neutral third party whose determination is binding on the disputing parties. · Bargaining unit: The group of employees that will be represented by the union. · Unionization rate in Private sector is declining. · States with relatively high levels of unionization-Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, · States with relatively low levels of unionization- Arizona, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina · Business representative: Full time employee to handle grievance and contract negotiations. · Steward: Employee elected by work unit to act as a union representative. · AFL-CIO is not a union but it is a federation. It encompasses national as well as local unions. · Common law is based on customs traditions of acceptable behavior and judicial precedent. · It covers conspiracy, breach of contract, property rights and the employment-at-will doctrine. · Statutory laws are enacted by legislature not judges. · Labor law is written explicitly for unions. Employment law is for individual employee. · 1932 Norris-Laguardia Act marks the start of Labor law era. · Wagner Act (1935) is built upon previous attempts to promote and protect worker’s ability to unionize in the private sector. It remains the centerpiece of private sector labor law. It created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to resolve representation questions and adjudicate unfair labor practices. It guarantees right to form the union and bargain collectively. Also, it defines 5 employer unfair labor practices that include discrimination on the basis of union support, discrimination to encourage or discourage union membership and refusal to bargain with a certified union. NLRB conducts elections and adjudicates unfair labor practices. NLRB has two parts; the general counsel’s office and a five member board. The Wagner act specifies only employer unfair labor practices. · The Landrum-Griffin Act was passed in 1959 in response to widespread union corruption and lack of internal union democracy. · NLRA excludes government workers. Government workers come under public sector labor law. E.g. NLRA includes USC employees but not CSU employees. · Processes of bargaining (4 types) – 1. Distributive bargaining: With distributive bargaining each party negotiates with the goal of achieving its own best possible outcome. 2. Integrative bargaining: It focuses on creative solutions that integrate the parties’s interest and yield joint benefits. 3. Concessionary bargaining: With concessionary bargaining employer seek concession from the unions promising job security in return. 4. Intra-organizational bargaining: During intra-organizational bargaining the representatives of labor and management confer with their respective constituents over the bargaining positions. · With continuous bargaining, joint committees with representatives from both labor and management meet on a regular basis to explore issues and solve problems of common interest. · Cooperative relationship requires that union and management solve problem together, share information and integrate outcome. · Mediation: Neutral third party helps the parties to reach a voluntary agreement. Strikes and lockouts include slow downs, primary boycotts and corporate campaigns. · Labor and management each select bargaining committee to negotiate the new agreement. The negotiations may be between a single union and a single company or multiple companies. Bargaining issues are mandatory, permissive or prohibited. The issues can be grouped into wage, benefits and services, institutional and administrative issues. · Two important current issues in unionization and collective bargaining are development of global union and social accountability. · If a contract specifically forbids strikes during the tenure of the collective bargaining agreement then the strike is not legal and is called as wildcat strike. · The Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) specifies the issues that can be discussed in collective bargaining sessions. Those are mandatory permissive and prohibited issues. Mandatory issues are those that employers and employee representative are obligated to meet and discuss. · Permissive issues are not specifically related to the nature of job but still of concern to both parties. · Prohibited issues concern illegal or outlawed activities. · Whip sawing occurs when one contract settlement is used as a precedent for the next. Thus forcing the employer to get all contract settled in order to have employees working. · NLRB conducts decertification elections that can remove a union from representation. · Card checking is a procedure that grants a union recognition by a company when 50% of the employees have indicated that they are in favor of union. Chapter 11 Chapter 1